Laurel Ames - Tempted

“I’m going. I’m going,” he promised with a laugh and went to knock at the library door.

“Come!”

Evan entered the room as he would that of a commanding officer who had sent for him without telling him why.

“So you have finally found it convenient to talk to me?”

“I’m sorry. I did try to be civil, but I am so unused to it, it is a bit of a strain.”

“For me as well. Look that over and tell me what you think.” His father tossed a document across the desk.

Evan sat down and read for a moment only before he said, “This isn’t Gram’s will. It’s yours. Why do you want me to read this?”

“Just read! You did learn that at your expensive school, didn’t you?”

Evan sighed and read slowly through the document, not believing any of it.

“Have you finished?”

Evan jerked as he had always done at the sound of his father’s voice, bursting on the silence like a shot. It was a habit he resented. If the French cannonading had not made him blink, why did this old man set his nerves on edge? “Yes, I’ve finished, but I don’t understand it.”

“I had thought you intelligent enough to comprehend a simple testament—”

“I mean, why me? Do you really mean to leave everything to me, when we have not spoken for ten years? Surely Terry has a better claim on you. If not Terry, then Thomas.”

“Thomas is as yet unformed and too young to worry over. Terence is…not like you.”

“Which is to say he does not drive you to the verge of apoplexy.”

Lord Mountjoy gave a grudging smile. “No, he does not. In fact, he agrees with every judgment I pronounce, even if I am dead wrong.”

“Are you?”

“What?”

“Ever wrong?”

Lord Mountjoy leaned back in his chair and braced his elbows on the arms, his fingers propped together in a steeple as he regarded Evan. “More than once I have erred quite fantastically, especially where you were concerned. I feared I would never have a chance to set that right.”

“If you mean to buy my loyalty after all those years of neglect, you cannot.” Evan resisted the impulse to fling the document in his father’s face, but merely laid it on the edge of the desk.

“I had no such thought. I am merely doing what is best for Meremont and everyone concerned. I have already spoken to Terry about it.”

“Let me guess—he agreed with you.”

“He is the most exasperating boy in that respect. Yes, he did.”

Suddenly Evan chuckled. “This is absurd. We should never get along.”

“I do not expect us to. In fact, I don’t want you under the same roof with me. Even I cannot take being rubbed raw at every meal. You may refurbish the dower house for your own until my death, then I’m sure you will give it over to Lady Mountjoy for her use.”

“A rather bleak future for a young mother. I wish you a long and prosperous life, Father.”

“She is not the most biddable of women, but she does give in to me.”

“Not too soon, I hope. Otherwise, you might hold her in the same regard as Terry.”

“No, we have had some rare battles, especially over you.”

“Indeed. I still don’t see what you want with me.”

“I don’t want someone who only agrees with me. I want someone who knows about things. The buildings need repairs. We need a new bridge over the stream to get our crops to market. I want to build a canal—”

“A what?”

“A canal to the Exe. I have bought up almost all the land I need.”

“Oh, no, Father. Not a canal. Have you any idea of the expense?”

“Some idea, but I’m sure you can work that out exactly…Don’t argue for just one moment, until I finish my thought. I also want someone who will disagree with me when the need arises.”

“And not out of mere playfulness?”

“Do you imagine we could ever be on such a footing?” His father looked at him intently.

Evan took a moment over his answer, sighing heavily at the wasted years behind him. Then he thought of Judith and smiled. “I can imagine it, with the right woman to keep us from each other’s throats, but I do not think we will come to such a state painlessly.”

“Then let us come to it by whatever road we must. It is the only way I can see for this family to survive. Do you agree?”

“I agree to try,” Evan said, rising. He looked at his father’s extended hand and shook it.

“Good. We’ll discuss the canal later.”

Evan opened his mouth, then closed it and went up to his room, shaking his head.

“You just had to do it, didn’t you?” Bose demanded. “You had to argue with him.” He tossed a pair of Evan’s boots to the floor with enough force to draw a complaint from him.

“Mind what you are about.”

“Disappearing for half the morning, then arguing the entire way through breakfast. What could you have been thinking of?”

“My head was turned, and I did apologize.”

“There should have been no need. I thought you were past such raw-recruit antics. I shall most likely never win Joan now. Don’t expect much dinner, is all I can say, for she is in tears in the kitchen, expecting us to be thrown out at any moment.”

“Bose, you are an admirable traveling companion, and sometimes even a passable batman, but your intelligence gathering leaves much to be desired,” Evan said, as he straightened his stock and searched out his riding crop.

“Don’t even speak to me. I shall hope to be taken on as a groom here. I wash my hands of you. What do you mean, intelligence?”

“Any moderately well run establishment would allocate at least one footman to stand outside a door where a crucial conference is being held, and keep the maids from crying into the shelled peas by reporting that everything is going to be fine.”

“It is? But you just had a rousing fight with him.”

“Yes, that’s what he likes about me. At least that’s what he says.”

“That makes no sense. Are you sure you have it right?” Bose asked, as Evan was about to leave.

“Seems odd to me, too, but he wants us to stay. He means to leave the place to me to run. Of course, I shall be instantly saddled with a family who doesn’t like me, with one exception. But that’s no worse than breaking in a new troop, don’t you think?”

“I’m sure there is a difference, but I don’t know what all it might be,” said Bose in awe.

“No sense borrowing trouble from tomorrow in any case. Of course, there’s no saying what might happen at dinner.”

Lady Mountjoy had watched Evan and Judith ride out and had waited by the morning-room window so that she could speak to her sister directly once they returned. When they came up the back steps of the house, Judith saw Helen staring at them and wiped the smile from her glowing face.

“Angel, leave us a moment,” Helen Mountjoy commanded a few minutes later, planting herself in her sisters’ bedroom.

Angel grimaced at Judith on her way out, drawing a smile from her. Judith was sitting on the bed in her shift and reached for her tired blue evening frock. Helen helped her pull it over her head.

“Where did this riding habit come from?” Helen asked as she turned to shake out the creases from the long green skirt hanging by the mirror.

“Evan bought it for me,” Judith said calmly, thinking of their first ride and how Evan had praised her natural riding ability.

“That’s not proper. It’s also very dangerous.”

“So I told him, but somehow he managed to talk me into it. I keep going over it in my mind, and I can’t quite make out how I agreed to it. It must have been when he threatened to buy me a red one.”

Helen sat on the bed beside her sister. “I know you are very sensible in the ordinary way, Judith, but he’s a man.”